High Failure Rate At NM Well Sites

About 85 percent of 276 oil and gas well sites inspected in southeastern New Mexico over the past six weeks have failed to pass after-the-fact electrical safety inspections.

Correction notices were issued to those sites that received a "failed" grade. None has been ordered to stop operations.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that Gov. Susana Martinez's office had called for the belated inspections after learning that the state Construction Industries Division had parked more than 500 inspection requests in a computer file because there weren't enough inspectors to do the work.

The governor's directive came after the Journal made inquiries in April about companies that were allowed by the state to skip inspections of electrical systems for oil and gas projects.